Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color, or other medium to a solid surface. The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes can be used. In art, the term "painting" describes both the act and the result of the action, and the final work is called "a painting". The support for paintings includes surfaces such as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, pottery, leaf, copper, and concrete, and the painting may incorporate multiple other materials, including sand, clay, paper, plaster, gold leaf, and even whole objects.
Painting is an important form of visual art, bringing in elements such as drawing, composition, gesture, narration, and abstraction. Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in still life and landscape painting), photographic, abstract, narrative, symbolistic (as in Symbolist art), emotive (as in Expressionism), or political in nature.
The definition of painting has evolved over time, and it has become more open to interpretation. Painting is important because it is a way that we can express our ideas and emotions. Painting also offers many benefits from developing creativity and improving various skills to helping support emotional well-being.
